Peck/Jones Moves Into Water Garden

Takes offices in a building it constructed

   Peck/Jones Construction Corporation, a large commercial and residential general contractor, has moved its headquarters from Westwood to Santa Monica, signing a lease in Santa Monica’s Water Garden, located on Colorado Avenue at 26th Street, which it constructed.
   With gross revenues of $129.7 million in 2001, and $149.7 in 2002, the company cashed in on a leasing market decimated by the dot-com crash and information technology companies struggling to pay rent.
   As a result, asking prices have declined, and one commercial real estate broker told the Los Angeles Business Journal last month that he could get space in the Water Garden for $1.25 a square foot, which is substantially below market value.
   But a Peck/Jones spokesman cited convenience, rather than cost as the reason for the move.
   “We moved to Santa Monica because our lease in Westwood had expired and Peck/Jones built the building at the Water Garden. We like the facility, the building, the parking and access to the freeway,” said George Fenimore, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs.
   Peck/Jones recently completed the renovation of the American Airlines terminal at the Los Angles Airport.
   Founded in 1915, it is now the second largest privately held construction company in Santa Monica. Morley Builders, with revenues of $167 million in 2001, is the city’s top contractor.